Possibly more or cheaper advance fare availability now it's booked a 3 car or alternatively it could be total fluke! Does seem some trains are rather random.
A couple of Ebbw diagrams were reverted to 150 or 2x153 to fulfill the Pembrokes.
They beat me to the advances too then hehe, mine was the higher bracket for my trip. Not as many standees into Crewe or Manchester today so that was good.
As mentioned above checking RTT for the unit number (113 and above). To help find Standard Plus - as the train pulls into the platform look for a black spot/circle under the windscreen. If the leading car has the black spot, this is the DMSL car (with PRM toilet etc) so you need to head to the rear as SP is in the non accessible DMS car. If the leading car has no black circle/spot you know the DMS is leading and SP will be at the front.
I think one of the Maesteg to Cheltenhams appears to be a pair of 153s today as well as one Ebbw Vale-Cardiff. The Newport-Ebbw Vale I believe are still booked for Sprinters anyway.
They will eventually but I believe this is one of the last routes to move across to 197 as they inter work with the Cambrian.
They could put Birmingham over and just get people to change trains in Shrewsbury
There aren’t sufficient sets to do that.
There is no point in them doing that whilst there are enough 158s still to cover the existing diagrams and also there are only just enough 197s to cover existing diagrams without them going there when they dont need to yet.
Thank goodness. A needless and endless torrent of spam in one language alone - multiplied by two for the second language. I dread the long gap.......fearing but knowing, the prolonged diatribe is going to be trotted out again.
Fantastic.
Some of the ERTMS 197’s are built so if they could be tested and brought into service is that without losing the 158’s and gaining the Machynlleth maintenance depot then there would be no space to keep them anywhere.
Only when approaching the terminus, but TfW says it before it’s necessary. For example, “We are now at Bridgend. Thank you for travelling with Transport for Wales. We will be travelling to Cardiff Central… only. The next station will be our final stop.” It doesn’t need to tell people that it’s going to Cardiff and no further while it’s still at Bridgend. Just saying that it’s going to Cardiff is enough. Besides, “only” makes it quite obvious anyway.
Will they also be updating the system so that it makes announcements in English only at stations in England? Having Welsh announcements outside of Wales has never made sense to me
They have English announcements outside of England so why shouldn't they have Welsh announcements outside of Wales? Welsh people do cross the border you know.
Isn't this also an interpretation that it's non-stop to Cardiff rather than stops between Bridgend and Cardiff?
The English announcements “outside of England” are to enable to vast majority of customers on the train to understand the announcement. “Welsh people do cross the border” suggests those people would no longer understand announcements if they were in English. English is also one of two official languages of Wales and the Senedd. According to 2021 census, the Welsh speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 17.8% (538,300 people) and nearly three quarters of the population in Wales said they had no Welsh language skills. Of those Welsh speakers, none don’t also speak English.
To make sure everyone can understand where they’re going, like how French passengers on a train that’s just arrived into Italy might not know Italian, but as I said, there is nobody that will arrive into Crewe on a Cardiff Manchester service and require Welsh announcements to know where they are.
Bridgend was just an example. It does it at Valley before Holyhead, Johnston before Milford Hvn, etc. It’s not a major problem, but it does contribute to yet more noise pollution. “Only” is enough.
That would explain why they looked the same on both classes!
The Newport Gwent announcement doesn't bother me as its still a lot shorter than some station names! But I agree about the final stop. Its not needed until its approaching the terminus e.g 'we are now approaching Cardiff Central where this train will terminate'. At the proceeding station the usual 'we will be travelling to Cardiff Central' would be fine.
Drifting off topic slightly but I personally found Merseyrails 507/508 announcements to be a good balance with minimal spam.
It bothers the hell out of me, because, firstly the station is not called that, secondly TfW do not serve the station in Essex, and most importantly "Gwent" only existed as a local government area for a mere 22 years from 1974-1996 and it has no relevance in 2024.
The King calls his local representative the Lord Lieutenant of Gwent and that's enough proof for me that the place still exists. Newport, Monmouthshire goes even further back, arguably to before the County Borough was created in 1891.
Which also has a seperate one for Monmouthshire, part of Gwent, so it makes zero sense.
The Monmouthshire Lord-lieutenancy was abolished when the Gwent one was created on 1 April 1974.
Agreed on all 3 points - however I understand the county is now known as Newport the same as the city is so they probably use Gwent as a name as they could hardly say Newport Newport. But either way its not needed. I know station annoucements just simply say 'Newport' although they often have Newport (South Wales) on screens when listing the calling pattern at stations. That isnt needed either as a train calling at Newport between Cardiff and Cwmbran is obviously going to be the South Wales Newport.
They probably wouldnt say 'Garth Bridgend' on the announcements as it would confuse matters with Bridgend being the name of another station.
There are not really 'a large number'. There are multiple places called Bradford, Cambridge, Chippenham, Northampton, Swindon, etc but no-one gets confused. What WOULD be confusing is using an obsolete name as some sort of weird compound name. A name that doesn't appear on any maps and hasn't been current for nearly 30 years.
It would have to be Newport Queensway now that dual carriageway has been built between the station and the High Street!
